Even After All That Time
by unperfectwolf
Summary: Het, Logan.Marie . oneshot . They'd been there the longest, they knew the layout, they knew the history better than anyone. They had been on the team long before any of the others, and would continue to be longer than the others.


**Even After All That Time  
By** UnperfectWolf  
**Archive:** fandomaid only until 14 march 2005  
**Rating:** pg  
**Fandom, Pairing:** X-Men: Movieverse, loganmarie  
**Summary:** " They'd been there the longest, they knew the layout, they knew the history better than anyone. They had been on the team long before any of the others, and would continue to be longer than the others."  
**Disclaimer:** not mine. never was mine. never will be mine. belongs to marvel and fox and lots of other people.  
**Written For:** fandomaid  
**Beta:** Cara, cause she's cool.  
**Word Count: **984

**EVEN AFTER ALL THAT TIME**

They walked in like they owned the place, having ridden up on an old relic motor bike, the kind that still ran on unleaded gasoline. That kind of bike hadn't been made for years now, so anytime they heard the distinctive sound the whole place knew the couple was back.

In essence, they did own the place. They'd been there the longest, and they knew the layout and the history better than anyone. They had been on the team long before any of the others, and would continue to be on longer than that were there now. They were a part of the mansion, even if they left for a little while every now and then.

He didn't know how long they'd been gone this time. Time didn't really matter, not when you had all the time in the world. They'd been gone awhile, he knew. Maybe a few years. But it didn't matter. He couldn't age, and her mutation let her steal his, at least long enough to keep her young and keep her healthy from anything.

After awhile, though, she didn't need to steal his mutation. She's stolen it so many time her body had incorporated it into her own, had made it a part of her. Her senses were almost as good as his and her healing time lagged only a few seconds.

It had been a long time since they had met in some dump of a bar in what had been Alberta, Canada. It was now in Central West, North America, but all that that meant was they didn't have to mess with paperwork to get from the mansion to their haunts in the far north. It was amazing how little had changed up there, even after so long. Even after almost 100 years.

The last time they left the mansion was just after Scott and Kitty's youngest child had died at the age of eighty-nine. It had been hard on Marie to see her childhood best friend's daughter die, seemingly so much older than her. It had been hard to remember that she'd once changed the old, frail woman's diapers and fed her bottles.

Logan had always been a loner and had seemed to take it easier, but he still found it hard to bare. They were his family, the people at the mansion, and he'd watched Amelia grow up, thought of her as a niece. He protected his family, and it was hard to understand that he couldn't save them when they got to this point. That he couldn't do anything.

Marie had been twenty-four when they finally stopped pretending and had gotten together. The next day they had disappeared for the first time, returning the next spring. They had done that periodically, going away for six months or so, for the next thirty years.

But then the aging of the other's had become noticeable, and people who'd always seemed about their age were suddenly so much older. After Charles died, they disappeared for over a year.

Soon, their intervals back were more sporadic than their time away. Soon they were like the family that lived a state or two over, the ones who you saw every few years and everyone exclaimed about how different you looked, how much everyone changed in the time you were all apart.

They were still X-Men. They still fought the bad guys and rescued anyone who needed it. They sent plenty of teenagers, kicked out because of their mutations, on to the mansion.

They were always in contact, ready to be picked up if they were needed. Ray, Scott's great-grandson, had rarely called on them, but he was only ten years or so into his command of the X-men. Marc, his father, had called on them at least three times a year, and Charles, Scott's son, had called on them continuously. Scott had never called on them, though admittedly they'd been back at the mansion more when he was commanding.

They had a set of rooms on the fourth floor of the old mansion, the original building, and the rooms were never messed with. Once a month someone went in a freshened the place up a bit, dusted and vacuumed, but that was it.

This time, they went straight towards their rooms. Someone would already know they were back, if not by the sound of the bike then by the security system that Logan always helped remake when they were back.

Logan could sense one of the younger kids behind them, watching them, and then a second one join it.

One was a young girl, maybe thirteen, and somewhere in Logan's mind the scent clicked. They'd saved the girl when she was four. She was the reason they'd come back the last time.

In his mind he wondered if it had truly been nine years.

He could hear her now, giggling. "See that guy there?" she asked the other kid. "That's The Wolverine. And that woman's The Rogue. They saved me once."

"The Wolverine and The Rogue?" the other was a girl, and her voice was filled with awe.

"Yeah. _The_ Wolverine and _The _Rogue," the first answered.

It was amusing to hear oneself portrayed in a romanticized fairytale like role when they ventured in to mutant society. They were a true mutant Beauty and the Beast, both of them famous for their fighting skills, and because they never aged. They were mutant celebrities, and had been some of the first ones, as part of the X-men team, that helped secure freedom for the mutants.

Logan and Rogue exchanged a glance but didn't turn around and confront them. It was nice to hear their names, even if it was just their code names. It was nice to be someplace where they were still a little bit more than myth.

It was nice to still be known, even after all that time.

_Finished 8 February 2005._


End file.
